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70% dip in terror incidents in J&K after abrogation of Article 370: Shah
Shah virtually flagged off 100 e-buses in Jammu and distributed more than 1,000 appointment letters to J&K Administrative Service (JKAS) and police officers, and compassionate appointees
Asserting that a “new era of peace has begun in Jammu and Kashmir”, Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Union Territory has witnessed a 70% decline in terrorist incidents and an 81% drop in civilian killings since the scrapping of Article 370. Shah added that there has been a 48% decline in deaths of security personnel.
Addressing a function in Jammu via video-conferencing, Shah credited “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for transforming J&K, which was known for terrorism, into a tourism hub.”
Shah virtually flagged off 100 e-buses in Jammu and distributed more than 1,000 appointment letters to J&K Administrative Service (JKAS) and police officers, and compassionate appointees.
“A total of 100 air-conditioned e-buses have been inaugurated, which will make transportation easier and help in environmental protection,” Shah said.
A project has been allocated for operation and maintenance of the buses for 12 years at a cost of ₹561 crores.
Shah said that under the leadership of Modi, India has spread environmental awareness throughout the world.
The home minister added that 209 successful candidates of J&K Combined Examination-2024 batch have received their appointment letters. They include 96 officers of the J&K Administrative Service, 63 officers of account gazette service and 50 officers of police service.
“Due to the transparent system under the current regime, these officers have got jobs on the basis of merit,” he said. He said that earlier. it was impossible to get a job without political recommendation or corruption.
Shah said that J&K was going through a phase of change and instead of terrorism, bomb blasts, firing, stone pelting and strikes; studies, schools, colleges, industries and infrastructure were being seen in the UT.
Shah said 2,654 organised stone-pelting incidents took place in Jammu and Kashmir in 2000 but no such incident took place in 2023.
“As many as 132 organised shutdowns took place in 2010 but there was none in 2023. As many as 112 civilians lost their lives in stone pelting in 2010 but no civilian life was lost in stone pelting in 2023. As many as 6,235 civilians were injured during the period (2010),” he added.
The home minister said terror financing has also been curbed in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Properties are being sealed and attached. A lot of terror organisations have been banned to curb their activities,” he said.
At least 885 people received job letters under compassionate appointment.
“After the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in August 2019, at least 34,440 vacancies have been filled. Out of these, 24,000 have been filled by J&K service selection board, 3,900 by J&K public service commission, 2,637 by J&K police and 2,436 by J&K Bank,” he said.
Thursday being national voters’ day, he exhorted all youth above 18 years of age to register themselves in the electoral rolls.
Shah said that after Modi took over as the Prime Minister, panchayat elections were held in J&K in 2018, which saw 74% voter turnout, block development council elections were held in October 2019 with 98% turnout and 3,650 sarpanches were elected in 4,483 constituencies.
